'Railway Poems'
by Barry Allen
ISBN 1-900467-07-0.
Softback. 150 x 210mm (approximately)
Full colour cover picture.
Text: 48 pages with 40 black-and-white drawings.
£4.50 including p&p (UK only).
Price on application for orders from outside the UK.
Available by post from the author:
Barry Allen
4 Mossville Road
Liverpool
L18 7JW
UK
Telephone 0151 724 2796
Cheques to be made payable to
'Barry Allen'.
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It is now quite a few years since the sight and smell of steam
locomotives worked regularly on the railways of this country
disappeared for ever. The shock of the rapid change to modern
forms of traction caused steam enthusiasts to spring into action
and perform miracles by transforming rusting relics of the steam
age into superb monuments to the glorious years.
This latest book of poems by Barry Allen, himself a railway employee
until 1965, relates in verse the period towards the end of steam,
that is remembered with affection by so many, to the modern marvel
that is now the heritage railway movement.
This absorbing publication, brings back to life an earlier era
and in doing so, recalls the atmosphere of that time, which was
warm and welcoming, a situation much less evident in today’s
modern railway environment, although still very much prevalent
on the various heritage railways around the country. The book
contains 36 poems with such appealing titles as ‘An Old
Friend Retires’, ‘The Carriage Window’, ‘A
Preservationist’s Trials’, ‘An Old Loco’s
Lament’ and ‘The Scrapyard’. The first eight lines
of the latter giving an insight into the material that is contained
within this excellent book:
Once proud steam engines rust and wait,
A breaker’s yard their final fate,
Now in death they stand in rows,
Waiting for those hammer blows,
Why I ask should it come to this,
But progress has blown her fateful kiss,
Their wheels are still, their breath expired,
All fittings gone, they’ve been retired.
The book will make an excellent ‘stocking filler’ for
husbands, boyfriends or sons who have steam in their blood!
NOTE: THESE POEMS WERE WRITTEN BY A RAILWAY PRESERVATIONIST
TO RAISE FUNDS FOR RAILWAY PRESERVATION GENERALLY. |
